Announcing the launch of Engine Yard University (EYU) Screencasts! Now there is one central place to publish Ruby video tutorials, at no charge, without any distracting clips of pet tricks, backyard wrestling matches, or wedding bloopers. It's like YouTube, but for geeks.

Interested in producing screencasts with a free copy of Camtasia or Screenflow? Keep reading for details.

EYU Screencasts are available to solidify Engine Yard's belief in...

1) Teaching and Learning

Our primary goal is to encourage teaching and learning in the Ruby and Rails communities. A common misconception is that teaching and learning are distinct. In reality, the more we teach, the closer we are to mastery. To say it another way, if you want to learn a concept, don't watch a screencast, MAKE a screencast.

2) Investment in Community

Engine Yard has invested heavily in open source projects and initiatives including: Rails 3, Rubinius, JRuby, Fog, RVM, and most recently, the Rails Installer. EYU Screencasts are part of this vision and philosophy.

3) Fun

It can be a lot of fun to share your ideas using video as a medium. To that end, we are hoping you will join in, and add to our starter list of screencasts below:

How to Contribute

To contribute your own work, watch How to Make a Good Screencast, and choose a software package that suits your needs. I like both Camtasia, and Screenflow, but there are plenty of alternatives. Once your clip is finished, you can create an account (or login with your cloud account). After uploading, your video will be processed and available for the entire community to learn from! Don't worry too much about the quality of your work, this is not a hollywood endeavour. And please don't be shy. If you have an idea, follow through and produce it!

Want a free copy of ScreenFlow or Camtasia? Just email training@engineyard.com and convince us, in a paragraph or two, that you will contribute quality content.